A peek into the past.....

The end of the nineteenth century brought many changes to "South Woods" as the Edgewood area was called in the days of Roger Williams. William Hall, a local real estate developer, began to develop the area. The population of Cranston in 1900 was 13,349 and growing. In those grand days people had clambakes at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet and paddled their canoes along the Pawtuxet River.

In the early twentieth century, the Union Electric Railroad constructed a cross-town streetcar along Park Avenue so that the "easterners" of Cranston could get to the burgeoning center where the William Briggs School was built in 1904. Families settled along this route and the children of the area needed a new neighborhood school. A site was chosen on Beachmont Avenue and the school was named Chester W. Barrows School.

And who was Chester W. Barrows?

Chester W. Barrows was a judge with the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He was a strong supporter of public education and a man active in community affairs. He was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School. Today his picture hangs in the William Hall Free Library, which he was instrumental in developing.

Chester W. Barrows School today......

Chester W. Barrows School is a neighborhood school of approximately 250 children in kindergarten through grade five. At the start of the 21st century, our school has a clear mission: